I feel very strongly about letting people know I'm proud of who I am. I want people to know when they hear my songs it's coming from a specific place. The new record is specifically for us trans women: that we can sing about our pain, being ostracized by our lovers, who are ashamed of us in a way. There's no pop music like that for our community. I wanted to contribute in that way.

I think love is important, and loving yourself and being happy and feeling you're worthy of happiness as an individual. One of the most important things is to have the courage to love yourself and share that with the world.

The Fun Girl video which was directed by Bijoux Altamarino really came out of her vision. I feel she understood the mystery, danger and power of the song and It really came through in the end.

I love to dance to Robyn, Nicki Minaj and Boney M.

I've been performing live a long time, even before doing dance music clubs downtown. I used to watch clips of Beyoncé to learn how to perform in front of people. I got my jitters out in front of my friends.

I realize that if I were in that situation - living a hard life with people telling them they're not worthy of love - maybe I would be that strong and that brave.

New York is very intense. Every time I go back to New York, I'm starting from scratch. You could have all these achievements - records, a tour - and then you get home and get back to the basics. It whips you into shape.